In The Boyhood of Lincoln: A Tale of the Tunker Schoolmaster and the Times of Black HawkButterworth, Hezekiah
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In The Boyhood of Lincoln: A Tale of the Tunker Schoolmaster and the Times of Black Hawk
Butterworth, Hezekiah
Lincoln, Abraham, 1809-1865 -- Fiction
"Brethren, we have met for worship,
And to adore the Lord our God:
Will you pray with all your power,
While we wait upon the Lord?
All is vain unless the Spirit
Of the Holy One comes down;
Brethren, pray, and heavenly manna
Will be showered all around.
"Sisters, will you join and help us?
Moses' sister help-ed him," etc.
The full glory of a spring day in Indiana shone over the vast forests,
as the Tunker rose to speak under the great trees. It was like an
Easter, and, indeed, the hymn sung at the opening of the service was
much like an Easter hymn. It related how--
"On this lovely morning my Saviour was rising,
The chains of mortality fully despising;
His sufferings are over, he's done agonizing--
This morning my Saviour will think upon _me_."
The individuality of the last line seemed especially comforting to many
of the toiling people, and caused Aunt Olive to uplift her voice in a
great shout.
"Come with me," said Jasper; "come with me this morning, and we will
walk beside the Sea of Galilee together. Galilee! I love to think of
Galilee--far, far away. The words spoken on the shores of Galilee, and
on the mountains over-looking Galilee, are the hope of the world. They
are the final words of our all-loving Father to his children. Times may
change, but these words will never be exceeded or superseded; nothing
can ever go beyond these teachings of the brotherhood of man, and the
way that the heart may find God, and become conscious of the presence of
God, and know its immortality, and the everlasting truth. What did the
great Teacher say on Galilee?"
The Parable began to repeat from memory the Sermon on the Mount and the
Galilean teachings. The birds came and sang in the trees during the long
recitations, and the people sank down on the grass. Once or twice Aunt
Olive's corn-field bonnet rose up, and out of it came a shout of
"Glory!" One enthusiastic brother shouted, at one point of the
quotations: "That's right, elder; pitch into 'em, and give it 'em--they
need it. We're all sinners here; a good field to improve upon! Go on!"
It was past high noon when Jasper finished his quotations from the
Gospels. He then paused, and said:
"Do you want to know who I am, and why I am here, and what has sent me
forth among the speckled birds of the forest? I will tell you. A true
life has no secrets--it needs none; it is open to all like the
revelations of the skies, and the sea, and the heart of Nature--what is
concealed in the heart is what should not be.
"I had a teacher. He is living now--an old, broken man--a name that will
sound strange to your ears. He gave up his life to teach the orphans
made by the war. He studied with them, learned with them, ate with them;
he saw with their eyes and felt with their hearts. He taught after the
school of Nature; as Nature teaches the child within, so he taught,
using outward objects.
"He once said to me:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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